40 Under 40 2020: Patrick Deloy, Dentsu and Isobar

Patrick Deloy

Managing director, Isobar Commerce; Chief growth and strategy officer, Dentsu Commerce
Dentsu and Isobar
Hong Kong

Patrick Deloy’s entrepreneurial aptitude was sparked at an early age through editing the trade magazine of the German Chamber of Business in Hong Kong. Inspired by the stories of self-starters, one year later he headed to Guangzhou to start his own company, providing web services to companies in Europe. After growing the business to a 20-person team, he sold NXG Consulting and began work on his next venture, an ecommerce solutions provider for businesses in China and Asia. Together with two other co-founders, Deloy grew Bluecom to win major clients such as Decathlon and LVMH, catching the attention of Japanese ad giant Dentsu along the way. Dentsu acquired the business in 2016, and rebranded Bluecom to Isobar Commerce, which Deloy has been overseeing as managing director since 2017.

Under his leadership, Isobar Commerce has grown to a 300-plus person team across all major APAC locations with an average CAGR of 120%. Deloy has driven market-first integrations with ecosystem partners like WeChat, Line and Naver, and led major client wins such as Microsoft, ASUS, Unilever, Shiseido, Sony, Wesfarmers and Philips. He claims to have lost no major client over the past three years. Crucially, he has done so with a very low staff turnover level of under 10%—well below the industry average.

No wonder then that Deloy was handed a leadership role in April this year as chief growth and strategy officer for Dentsu Commerce, in addition to his duties overseeing Isobar Commerce. In this position, he leads the commerce and experience portfolio of Dentsu across all markets in APAC, working with a team of more than 2,000 commerce experts. It’s been a busy year to be running a commerce division, with Covid-19 rapidly accelerating a shift in retail habits. Deloy responded by creating a “fast track” commerce solution for retailers looking to jumpstart their online shops, and a B2B commerce-transformation playbook that maps out a full path to digitalisation. The global CEO of creative at Dentsu, Jean Lin, calls Deloy “one of the most progressive and passionate entrepreneurs” who “leads by example and rolls up his sleeves to make things happen”.